Proteases are widely used as ingredients in commercial detergents, including liquids. Two different proteases may be used together (U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,490, WO 88/03946). Other enzyme types (i.e. non-proteolytic) may also be used in detergents, e.g. amylass, cellulase, lipass or peroxidase.
A major problem in formulating enzymatic detergents, especially liquid detergents, is that of ensuring enzyme stability during storage. For a detergent containing a protease together with another enzyme, the stability problem is aggravated as the protease is liable to digest and deactivate the other enzyme (i.e. the other protease or the non-proteolytic enzyme).
WO 89/04361 discloses a detergent containing a protease and a lipass, where improved lipass stability is achieved by selecting a specified groups of lipases and a specified group of proteases.